Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Capable of being maintained in argument; rationally defensible.
- adjective Capable of being held against assault; defensible.
- adjective Capable of enduring or of being tolerated.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Capable of being held, maintained, or defended successfully against an assailant; successfully defensible against attacks or arguments or objections: as, a tenable fortress; a tenable theory.
- Held; retained; kept secret or inviolate.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Capable of being held, maintained, or defended, as against an assailant or objector, or against attempts to take or process.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective capable of being
maintained orjustified ;well-founded - adjective of a defensive structure capable of being
defended againstassault orattack ;defensible
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective based on sound reasoning or evidence
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word tenable.
Examples
-
What seems no longer tenable is the romantic, idealized idea of fatherhood once associated with “The Godfather,” where the passionate mutual devotion of fathers and sons seemed completely of a piece with the relentless pursuit of power and destruction of the enemy.
-
What seems no longer tenable is the romantic, idealized idea of fatherhood once associated with “The Godfather,” where the passionate mutual devotion of fathers and sons seemed completely of a piece with the relentless pursuit of power and destruction of the enemy.
Print - They Keep Pulling Us Back In … | PopPolitics.com 2005
-
What seems no longer tenable is the romantic, idealized idea of fatherhood once associated with “The Godfather,” where the passionate mutual devotion of fathers and sons seemed completely of a piece with the relentless pursuit of power and destruction of the enemy.
-
Is the idea tenable that the Creator has no comprehension of what is manifested in creation?
The Promulgation of Universal Peace 1844-1921 `Abdu'l-Bah�� 1882
-
Still less is the notion tenable of any special improbability applying to this particular pretension.
Theological Essays and Other Papers — Volume 1 Thomas De Quincey 1822
-
In which case, all I know is to state and establish the 'tenable' group's place ( 'tenets') and attract whoever comes to stand on it.
-
The majority says that the equal protection argument is "tenable", if that counts as an endorsement, then there are 6 votes for treating gay people as entitled to equal protection under the Constitution.
-
It was, indeed, not considered, to use a technical word, "tenable," and there was no rent to pay for living in it.
Solomon Crow's Christmas Pockets and Other Tales Ruth McEnery Stuart 1886
-
Describing Chinese currency policy as not "tenable" and saying the country was now "too large" to base growth on exports, Geithner said reform was in both countries' interests.
-
The "no-strings-attached" fellowship, awarded to undergraduate and first-year graduate students studying engineering or the applied sciences, can be used to fund graduate study at one of roughly 50 schools deemed "tenable" by the Hertz Foundation.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.